


I'll Remember

by hamiltonkilljoy75



Category: Carry On Series - Rainbow Rowell
Genre: Enemies to Lovers, High School, Light Angst, M/M, Normal AU, POV Penny, POV Tyrannus Basilton "Baz" Pitch, Senior year, Tags Are Hard, also i included trixie, am I tagging correctly, baz likes glee, i think they're just tired, madonna brings people together, mood, studying for finals
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-23
Updated: 2019-08-11
Packaged: 2020-05-16 23:29:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19328296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hamiltonkilljoy75/pseuds/hamiltonkilljoy75
Summary: It's the end of the first semester of Simon and Penny's senior year of high school, which means finals and the beginning of graduation singing rehearsals. Between frazzled last minute studying and frustrations over a certain posh, twatty roommate, who knows what will transpire!Or: I take my real life frustrations and insert them into a relevant fanfiction format.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I started writing this in January after my own "senior singing" practice and just found it while looking through my files on my new computer. I still have to tidy up some loose ends (as it turned from a one-shot into a multi-fic), but it should be done by the end of the month! Hurray!
> 
> Also, (WARNING) there are more references to the show Glee than I am proud of because I think that Baz would have totally watched Glee in middle school/early high school and considered it the best thing ever until he watched, you know, other tv shows. And they actually used Chris Colfer's rendition of I'll Remember from Glee during my own senior singing instead of Madonna.

“Can you believe that he refuses to even sing! I get that you don’t like Madonna or Miley Cyrus because you’re better than all of us or whatever, but we have to practice for graduation!”

Simon’s been raving for the last hour about Baz, but what else is new? We just had graduation song practice and apparently Baz didn’t sing a note. Probably because he doesn’t want to embarrass all with his magical mystical voice that he hides behind his sneers. But I do find it strange that he isn’t singing: the tradition of singing two songs at the Watford commencement was started under his mother’s leadership.

Granted, I’m not that big a fan of the songs our class supposedly chose. Though I’m pretty sure that we definitely did all vote for “The Climb” because it was the only song other than “How Far I’ll Go” that we recognized. But Madonna’s “I’ll Remember” is just kind of 90s bullshit that sounds like 70s bullshit. Not even good 70s bullshit. I get that it’ll make the parents cry, but we’re singing along to the Glee version. Chris Colfer, as fantastic as he may be, is not the same as Madonna.

Simon’s nearly trodden a hole in the floor he’s been pacing back and forth on, rifling a hand through his hair as I try to start my homework. “You sit in front of him; how do you know he wasn’t singing?” I asked, looking for my Biology textbook (it was under my backpack).

He stops in his tracks and turns to look at me. “Are you joking? I sit directly in front of him! I can feel him breathing down my neck; he wasn’t singing!” He exclaims, walking towards me and sitting on the edge of the bed. Then he goes into puppy dog mode, eyes wide, hair flopped to the side; the whole shebang.

He wants me to give him a lecture. Jesus Christ, this kid.

“Simon, ask for what you want,” I say instead of launching into a lecture (I’m trying to learn how to control when I go into lecture mode) (because who wants someone to spontaneously burst out into a lecture).

“Tell me I’m right and that he’s a vampire.”

I shrug, turning to my homework. “You’re right. Baz is a vampire.”

He stands up suddenly, upsetting the stack of papers that fly off the bed and all over the room. “No, Penny—“

“What do you want me to say, Simon?” I say, launching into words that I’ve been wanting to say for months, maybe even years. “You have a shitty roommate and he won’t sing the shitty songs for graduation. What is what I’m going to say change about any part of your situation?”

The room grows smaller as the silence sets in. I shake my head. “I’m sorry, Si. I know Baz is a pest and bothers your waking existence. If you need to talk, I have a shitty roommate too. With an—I’m not going to say shitty—inconsiderate girlfriend who doesn’t know the definition of privacy.”

He smiles and starts picking up the papers. “Thanks, Pen,” He says before his eyes land on a differential equation. I think his mind explodes a little. “You’re learning this stuff?”

“Unfortunately, but it is actually quite interesting. You might like it when you take it in college; it’s all numbers and no words,” I say, imitating a bad QVC presenter.

Simon laughs. “Like I’d have a choice; I’m probably going to make you chose my classes, even if we don’t go to the same school.”

“No, you’ll pick your own classes. I trust your judgment.”

“I don’t!” He says jokingly.

I snort and push my glasses up my nose. “You’ll figure out the first semester and then if something goes wonky, you’ll have enough sense to call me and figure it out.”

He hands me an unorganized stack of papers, filled with penciled in notes and equations. “I don’t know what the hell I’m gonna do without you.”

“I don’t know what I’m going to do without you bursting into my room at 4 in the afternoon ranting about Baz.” I take the stack of papers and begin to shuffle them into a neater pile that I promptly place back on the bed because I clearly don’t learn.

He groans. “The moment I think that he’s completely out of my head and you bring him up!”

“I’m sorry. I was trying to come up with an adequate compliment,” I respond. “But I do have no clue what’s going to happen when we graduate.”

“You and me both.”

We go quiet, but not the kind of silent that needs to be filled with conversation. It's a pleasant “we’re gonna study now” kind of quiet. (Although I don’t know how much studying Simon is doing on YouTube.) I begin to sort through my papers when I realize something is missing.

“Hey Si?”

“Hmm?”

“Do you see any notes on leading and lagging strands? I could have sworn that I had printed them out!” I asked, rifling through my notes again. Papers fly everywhere in a small tornado concentrated around my bed.

Simon shrugs. “You know I don’t pay attention to those kinds of things,” he says, taking out an earbud. “Have you checked your folder?”

“I emptied the folder to take out all the notes,” I inform him, getting a little frustrated.

“I dunno what to tell you, Pen. I don’t know why you’re asking me,” he replies. God bless him for putting up with my crazy, though he also has some crazy that is something that we’ve already discussed (i.e. his obsession with Baz).

I slip into my formal loafers and grab the laptop from off my desk. “I’m going to the library to print. I’ll be back in five minutes.”

He makes a noise of approval as I shove my keys into my bra (my skirt doesn’t have pockets and neither does my jumper; I hate uniforms, but that’s another problem for another day) and walk out of my room and down the hall.

I would be in the library after a quick five-minute walk, but I hear the Glee version of “I’ll Remember” coming from a dorm near the stairs on Simon’s floor. After investigating the noise slightly, the song is coming from Simon’s room. Simon’s room that he shares with Baz. Baz is listening to the song we have to sing for graduation alone in his room. Not bothering to knock, I push open the door (which in my defense was slightly ajar to begin with) to see Baz sprawled out on his bed, looking at the ceiling, and watching Glee on his laptop. When I walk closer, his eyes are closed and silent tears are streaming down his face.

Baz is watching Glee and crying.

I shouldn’t have pushed the door open, but I’m here now and there’s really no point in turning back. There’s no way that I can go to the library in peace when the guy that my best friend has hated since freshman year is crying, by himself, and watching Glee. The crying I get; his mom was murdered in front of him. If only one person is allowed to cry for the rest of time, I would give my crying privileges to Baz. But Glee? Especially an episode that is clearly not in the first season (I had to look up which episode “I’ll Remember” was in after the first rehearsal; it was in the season three finale). That’s an all-time low that I simply can’t unsee. Baz watches Glee? Of all the shows in the world…I guess Glee makes a little bit of sense, but I’d expect him to be a snobbish documentary or foreign film enthusiast. Not watching the musical precursor to Riverdale!

The show stops playing in the background of my thoughts.

“What do you want, Bunce?” Baz asks quietly, snapping me out of my thoughts. “Did Snow send you?”

“What? No! I was on my way to the library but I got distracted,” I say, gesturing to the laptop that’s still cradled in my arms. “Why are you watching Glee…by yourself…and specifically the song we’re singing at graduation?”

He sits up and wipes the tears from his face with his sleeve. “I requested it as a joke.”

I raised an eyebrow. Even though we’re not very good friends (and he is constantly shown in a very negative light), I can always tell when someone is lying.

Baz groans. “Fine, my joke song was ‘What’s New Pussycat’ and I submitted ‘I’ll Remember’ as my real song. But I didn’t actually think that they would actually choose it! I just submitted it because I was binge watching Glee, again, and it’s the song that Kurt sang for Blaine before he left the New Directions. And it makes me cry because I know he loves him unconditional before everything goes to shit in season 4.”

He covers his mouth and silently curses at himself. “I meant…my mom liked Madonna!” He replies unconvincingly, far less genuine than he was before.

My mind is working in overtime, but it adds up the pieces together quite quickly.

“You like someone?”

It comes out more of an accusation than a question, but the general idea is still there. He doesn’t say anything, simply walking around the room with his hands over his face. I keep talking to fill the insufferable silences.

“You don’t sing during rehearsals because you know that you’ll start crying, which inadvertently pisses off Simon.”

“It does?” He asks suddenly, before stepping back and becoming incredibly defensive. “Not that I care. At all. I don’t like him. I don’t know what you’re talking about. I loathe him. I’ve loathed him since the day we met and there is nothing that anyone can do to change that!”

There’s a soft thud on the ground outside the door. Simon stands dumbly in the doorway, jaw slack, and a folder full of papers with my handwriting on the ground.

“Snow. I see you’ve made it back from wherever you came from,” Baz says coldly, returning to his cold and steely exterior.

“Penny, what are you doing here?” Simon asks, walking over my notes and into the room. “I was going to come and find you in the library to tell you that I found more of your notes, but then I decided that to come back to my room to get more of my stuff…”

This has to be the worst place on Earth: stuck in between Baz and Simon, archenemies of the likes only found in the genre of fantasy and grand epics. On both sides, there’s fire unlike anything I’ve ever seen, but something about this rivalry has changed. Or it’s finally starting to make sense. Baz never finished Simon off in a fight, intellectually or physically, even though he clearly has the means to do so. He never goes for the final blow. And I understand why. Finally. I can’t believe it took me so long to put all the pieces together.

“Simon,” I start, placing my laptop on Simon’s bed so that it doesn’t get damaged in case of spontaneous fistfight, “you might want to think about this for five seconds.”

“Penny, I’ve thought about this for the last three hours when he wasn’t singing during practice!” Simon exclaims, still staring intently at Baz.

“Let’s just go back to my room and study for finals; these are the grades that will make or break our college acceptances,” I say, pushing him towards the door, “or rejections. You can deal with him later.”

He shakes his head and I can almost see Baz go weak at the knees out of the corner of my eye. “I’d rather deal with this now.”

“Oh, can’t wait to be rid of me, aren’t you Snow?” Baz says, clenching his jaw. “Can’t wait until June to give me a piece of your mind like you have for the last four years. Let me have it.”

I walk over to Baz. “No way. You are not starting a fight in your state!”

“In his state?” Simon asks incredulously. “Because he’s a fragile bird? He just said that he loathed me and nothing can change that!”

“Indeed I did,” Baz says through gritted teeth. “I loathe you, Simon. Are you happy now?”

“No. I won’t be happy until I never have to see you again!”

“Fine! So we’ll never see each other again!” Baz pushes past me towards Simon. “Hallelujah and praise the day that my half-wit roommate decides that it would best for us to never speak again the minute we leave this school!”

“It sounds like a plan, then!” Simon growls, starting to go red. “And for the record, I hate you. And that tops loathing!”

“Do you even know what loathing means?” Baz sneers, clenching his fists. I can’t see the expression on his face but I can imagine that he’s getting close to breaking. The look on Simon’s face means murder and I can’t take it anymore.

“Jesus Christ, Baz!” I exclaim, walking between the two of them and their bickering. “You don’t loathe Simon! You just loathe how much you actually like him! Simon, you have been obsessed with Baz’s every move since freshman year; have you ever considered that it might, in fact, be something different than hate?”

Both look like they're about to collectively pounce on me and tear me to shreds.

“Don’t look at me!” I exclaim suddenly. “Discuss amongst yourselves; I have a biology final tomorrow!”

And with that, I walk out the door and pick up the folder of my notes. I slam the door behind me and walk up to my room with my notes in hand.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Baz and Simon work it out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...
> 
> I'm really bad at posting on time, lol. But this took far longer than expected and I have been super busy so please forgive me!
> 
> The next chapter will be up sooner, I promise!

So here’s the real story.

I promised Aunt Fiona that I’d submit “What’s New Pussycat” by Tom Jones as a joke for the graduation song thing. She wanted me to do it 21 times with one “It’s Not Unusual” for joke’s sake before I would give my actual suggestions, but then we found out that we could only submit two songs in total. Apparently, the rules changed the year after Fiona graduated. I wonder why.

So I was watching this musical on YouTube (it wasn’t a bootleg, Lin-Manuel Miranda; it was a legal professional recording) for some inspiration but I kept getting distracted because the main character looked familiar to me and I didn’t know why. Well, that was until I was looking under the cast bios for another project by the same people who did the musical. Apparently, the main character in the musical I was watching led the Warblers’ “Uptown Girls” or “The Terrible Attempt to Make Gleeks Think That Any of the Warblers are Actually Heterosexual.” Then I was just caught up in the episode and the drama that followed. And it was one of the better episodes since Finchel and Klaine (finally) decide to have sex after the opening night of West Side Story. Not that I care. (Also it’s weird that both of the shows iconic couples decided do the deed the same night, but it’s not like I’ve ever had sex before.) (Maybe we just need to do West Side Story and have Simon play Krupke and me as Tony for me to get my v-card taken.) (But what knowledge of high school do I have as a high school senior that would trump a forty-year-old Hollywood producer?)

If anyone asks me if I watch Glee, I would vehemently deny it.

Which is true. To an extent. I don’t just watch Glee; I experience it with my whole mind, body, and soul. Even if they did utterly slaughter My Chemical Romance’s “Sing” when they were trying to make Sue feel better. While running around on the risers in plaid like it was an episode of Supernatural or something. They still have Kurt’s whole arc from season 1 to season 3, where he ends singing “I’ll Remember” to Blaine as a promise. Seasons 4 and 5 have no importance whatsoever. You can skip to season 6, but by then the arc has been finished for a long time.

And with the whole private boarding school thing that I have in my real life, I can’t help but be reminded of the goddamn Warblers and Dalton Academy. Watford is coed, but it doesn’t shake the feeling of an old midwestern educational institution steeped in tradition; the place where Kurt and Blaine found their way to each other even if it was completely unplanned, in their world and the grand scheme of the show.

But mostly, it reminds me of Simon. Simon Snow. I’ve been hopeless in love with him since I can hardly remember when. (Freshman year, but I can barely remember anything before that, so it works.) He always walks with this calm yet courteous air, like he owns the school. Everyone knows who he is and, of course, he’s beautiful and good and friends with everyone he meets.

When I got to the season 3 finale, I cried. It was the first time that I forced myself to think about what life will be like when graduation comes and goes. I definitely know I’m going to college (I’ve already been accepted to five different schools, all safeties, but schools nonetheless) but I’ve never really thought about actually going. After my mom died, Father’s had this whole life plan for me that I’ve been okay sticking to until the moment I realized what sticking to it meant. Following his intention of going to Harvard, getting a job as a lawyer, and taking over the family business has no room for a family or kids.

Well, it used to. And then I had the brilliant idea to come out to my father at the end of junior year and all of the domestic freedoms I was looking forward to vanished from the plans. Not that any of my (far too many) fantasies about Simon would pan out anyhow. But, in a moment of weakness, I thought about what it would be like to never see my idiot, dimwit, beautiful roommate ever again. I thought about how empty my life would be when I would go into a room and not blame him for the mess he left in there. I thought about never seeing his blue eyes and bronze curls and moles and tawny skin ever again (he blocked me on all of the social media platforms except for Tumblr; I’ve been feeding him memes for years on there). I thought about watching the man of my dreams slip from my fingers even though there was nothing there except fights and arguments and the occasional fisticuffs. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Before I knew it, I was crying and watching Glee by myself at 3 am. Snow was sleeping soundly on the other side of the room, the moonlight making his hair shimmer like he was a god or something. (He’s definitely something.) I wiped my tears and looked up the lyrics to “I’ll Remember” to submit the next morning for our graduation song.

I didn’t expect anyone to pick it! And most certainly didn’t expect Ms. Possibelf to tote it as her favorite graduation song! I was just weak for a moment thinking about the impossible Snow who bothers my every waking moment!

And for the record, it’s not that I couldn’t sing in rehearsals. It was just that every time I opened my mouth, I could feel all of my emotions come bubbling to the surface, and I wasn’t going to have that. Music has always been an outlet for all the anger and sadness and struggles that I’ve had to endure that singing made me feel vulnerable and weak. And of course, Snow had to be sitting in front of me. I would rather stay silent and breathe creepily into his ear instead of sing and be a blubbering mess around him. If I let my guard down for one second, he’ll suspect something, and I’d have to confess. Because I’m weak.

He would laugh and reject me. There’d be even more for him to hate about me, which is why I can’t respond when Bunce asks me if I like someone. Because it’s more than just merely “liking Simon Snow.” It’s having to admit that for the last four years, I’ve been completely infatuated by the God-ordained mess I have to share a room with, but my insecurities and emotional instability makes me unable to express my feelings constructively. Bunce interrupts my train of thought without waiting for an answer from me.

“You don’t sing during rehearsals because you know that you’ll start crying, which inadvertently pisses off Simon.”

“It does?” I ask suddenly, snapping my head up from out of my hands. I’ve said too much. “Not that I care. At all. I don’t like him. I don’t know what you’re talking about. I loathe him. I’ve loathed him since the day we met, and there is nothing that anyone can do to change that!”

Something brilliant catches my eye. Bronze curls. Blue eyes. He drops a folder full of papers and stands smack dab in the middle of the doorway, jaw dropped and gorgeous. I pull myself together while he and Bunce talk. He’s glaring at me all the while, but it’s nothing new. There’s nothing that can touch me. I am immortal, and not even Simon Snow can break through my walls of steel.

He shakes his head, and I feel my knees buckle slightly, entirely against my will. “I’d rather deal with this now.”

“Oh, can’t wait to be rid of me, aren’t you Snow?” I say, clenching my jaw, trying to keep all of my emotions under control. “Can’t wait until June to give me a piece of your mind like you have for the last four years. Let me have it.”

Bunce walks over to me with the concerned motherly look on her face. “No way. You are not starting a fight in your state!”

“In his state?” Simon asks incredulously. “Because he’s a fragile bird? He just said that he loathed me and nothing can change that!”

“Indeed I did,” I say through gritted teeth, repeating my lies. “I loathe you, Simon. Are you happy now?”

“No. I won’t be happy until I never have to see you again!”

“Fine! So we’ll never see each other again!” I push past Bunce to face him. “Hallelujah and praise the day that my half-wit roommate decides that it would best for us to never speak again the minute we leave this school!”

“It sounds like a plan, then!” Simon growls, starting to go red. It’s hot and fiery and turns me on slightly because Lord knows I’m disturbed. “And for the record, I hate you. And that tops loathing!”

“Do you even know what loathing means?” I sneer, clenching my fists so that I don’t lose control. The look on Simon’s face means murder, and that’s when Bunce snaps.

“Jesus Christ, Baz!” She exclaims, walking between the two of us. “You don’t loathe Simon! You just loathe how much you actually like him! Simon, you have been obsessed with Baz’s every move since freshman year; have you ever considered that it might, in fact, be something different than hate?”

I want to ground to swallow me whole. I want to pin Snow and his murderous scowl against a wall and kiss him mercilessly. But more accurately, I have the strongest urge to throw Bunce out a window. More accurately, to defenestrate her. Never in my life did I think that I would actually have a use for the word “defenestrate” outside of academia.

“Don’t look at me! Discuss amongst yourselves; I have a biology final tomorrow!”

And with that, Bunce leaves me with Simon’s blue eyes boring into my soul.

We stand there for what feels like an eternity. Snow, bless him, is trying to keep his murderous gaze upon me but can’t help but slip into the cracks of his adorably sentimental nature. I can’t help it anymore and break eye contact.

“She’s not wrong, you know,” I say, unable to look him in the eye. “I don’t hate you or loathe you.”

Three words are on the tip of my tongue, but I thought that I would die before that would ever happen. Those three words have been swirling in my mind since we were freshmen, and I was trying my best to hate Simon. Simon, the popular kid, friends with everyone, favorite of the headmaster who tried to tarnish and destroy my mother’s legacy. But I would never hate him. As angry as I am at Bunce, I’m slightly surprised that no one figured it out sooner.

His eyes are still staring into me, but I can’t see his face.

“What do you mean.”

Not a question. There’s no venom in his voice. He sounds more curious and worried than aggressive and angry.

I sigh and shake my head. “I’ve…liked you since freshman year. I’ve never hated you.”

Simon melts slightly but quickly returns to his rough exterior. “So all of those times that you’ve said that you’ve hated me…”

His voice trails off before he remembers all of the horrible things I’ve done to piss him off in some way or another. Or at least that’s what I think he’s doing. I look up slightly to see that his face has gone red, and his eyes are burning with something that I’ve never seen before.

“So when you were trying to break up me and Aggie?”

“Agatha and me,” I reply instinctively, like the grammar nazi that I am.

He rolls his eyes. “You didn’t want to date Agatha?” I groan.

“Yes.”

Simon blinks. “Yes, you didn’t want to date Agatha?”

“Yes, I didn’t want to date Agatha! I wanted you!” I exclaim, completely unable to hold back. “I have always wanted you! But you would never have me because you’re my perfect, straight roommate who’s friends with everyone and is the most beautiful thing I’ve seen in my entire life!”

His jaw drops, and he’s stuck standing there like the beautiful idiot that he is. I can’t handle this. So I make my way towards the door.

“Baz, wait,” Simon says suddenly. Before I know what’s going on, he has me pressed up against the door. His blue eyes are hungry, but they’re not angry or burning with the fires of hatred. It’s like he’s preparing to attack.

“Simon…”

Suddenly, his mouth is on mine, and I can’t think straight. (Not that I ever could…for obvious reasons.) Every thought and worry has been put on mute, so I can enjoy this moment of being pinned against a door by my beautiful roommate, who I’ve been secretly pining over for the last three years, who is proceeding to kiss the ever living daylights out of me. And, because I’m weak, I’m kissing his back with everything I am. With all three and a half years of (sexual) frustration and (sexual) aggression. He lets go of me too soon and takes a step back.

“Wait, Baz.”

I shake my head. “It’s okay if you don’t want me. I understand.”

Simon looks at me like I’m the idiot and a blush creeps onto his beautiful freckled cheeks. “No. Baz. Not that. I kissed you,” he stutters out. “Why weren’t you singing at graduation practice? It’s okay if you hate the songs. Neither of them were my first choice, either.”

I let out a small laugh. “I submitted ‘I’ll Remember’ as one of our songs.”

His jaw hangs open. “What?”

“I even submitted the Glee version that we’re working with,” I admit, looking at the ground. He lets out a quick, loud laugh before quickly recomposing himself. “You didn’t answer my question.”

I sigh and walk over to my laptop, which is still paused on the episode of Glee I was watching earlier. “Just watch this,” I tell him.

I’m not in the mood for explaining myself to Simon. To my surprise, he sits down and starts playing the video. Chris Colfer’s voice does nothing to lessen the tension. In fact, I think there could have been nothing worse I could have done in the situation than show Simon Snow one of my most private guilty pleasures and expect him to understand. It’s never how any of this ever worked. Why would one kiss change all of that?

The song finishes, and he looks up at me like a confused dog (because he really is a golden retriever) for some kind of explanation. So I give it to him. “I didn’t sing because every time I think about leaving this place…” my voice trails off.

“You think of all the things you’re going to miss?” Simon finishes.

I nod. “I’ve lived my whole high school career actively trying to escape an inevitable future where we have to go our separate ways, and I have to accept that we will never be more than enemies.”

He looks at me and shakes his head. “You know we’re more than that now.”

He stands and walks over to me. I shake my head. “You deserve the world, Snow. I can’t give that to you.”

“Simon.”

“What?”

He presses up onto his toes so his forehead can touch mine. Our lips are inches apart. He’s so warm and beautiful; I can’t stand how in love with him I am.

“You called me Simon before.”

“Did not.”

“You’re an idiot, Baz.”

“Look who’s talking.”

And then I close the distance between us. It’s heaven on Earth, and I am in no mood to stop. Even if finals are tomorrow and the future is barreling towards us like a runaway train. Nothing in the world will make me want to stop kissing Simon Snow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The musical that Baz was watching is called Spies are Forever by the Tin Can Brothers which is free to watch on YouTube!
> 
> Also, feel free to leave a comment or kudo if you liked this chapter! It never fails to make my day!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Penny finds out and has a strange roommate bonding experience.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome back! It's been a hot second! But, for my standard, this is a pretty recent upload!
> 
> I have not been focusing a lot on my fanfiction game recently, as I finished an actual original thing that I've been working on for the last year (squee!). But, never fear! I am back and ready to give you feels and also some Penny and Trixie interaction that is sorely lacking in this fandom, but I digress! Enjoy!
> 
> (also this chapter is from Penny's point of view)

Everything in my room is how I left it and I try to keep all of the new revelations about Simon and Baz’s relationship out of my head. But instead of dwelling, I turn off my phone and busy myself with water potential equations and chi-squared stuff and suddenly it’s nine pm and I missed dinner. Which is strange because I seem to have misplaced my laptop. You would think that I would have worried about it sooner.

Trixie is back (sans Keris, thank God) and going through her extensive nightly routine in front of the mirror on her desk/vanity. “Trixie?” I ask, snapping her attention from the mirror. She seems surprised to see me.

“Penny? You nearly scared the shit out of me; how long have you been sitting there?” She asks.

I shrug. “Four hours, maybe. I lost track of time.”

She shakes her head before turning her attention back to the mirror. “Whatever. What do you want?”

“Have you seen my laptop?”

“Why would I know where your laptop is? We barely talk as it is!” She replies, rolling her eyes and moving her hands to a sheet mask package.

“Touche!” I say, remembering that I might have left it on the floor of Baz and Simon’s room. “I think I left it somewhere else. If I’m not back in fifteen minutes, send the wolves after me.”

“Fine. Don’t die!”

I still have the keys in my bra, so I just leave the room and walk down to Simon’s floor. And I hear that same fricking Madonna song. With Chris Colfer singing it. On Glee. It’s like my life is turning into an episode of The Twilight Zone or Black Mirror. But there’s something different this time as I approach the door to their room. A noise that I can’t quite place. Laughter, maybe? My eyes lower as I see what looks like a tie on the door, but I can’t tell if it’s a mistake or not because it’s caught in the doorway. (Although why would someone put a tie in the doorway by mistake.) Because I’m a human being, I knock on the door and wait.

Simon opens the door in a dreamlike state, his hair mussed up, lips swollen, and shirt mostly unbuttoned. His eyes widen when he sees me.

“Penny!” He exclaims quietly. “What are you doing here?”

I bend down to pick up the tie that has since fallen out of the doorway. “I’m here to trade this tie for my laptop if you would be so kind.”

Oh, Simon. Poor Simon. “Your laptop?”

I nod. “I left it on your bed before…whatever events have transpired in the last four hours?”

He blinks and slams the door in my face. The music stops and there’s some talking before the door opens again with Simon holding my laptop precariously. “There you go.”

I smile politely and sigh. “Thanks. Don’t stay up too late doing…whatever you’re doing. We still have finals!”

Simon can’t find words. After a beat, he nods understandingly and closes the door behind him. The music begins again and that is my cue to leave and walk back up to my room.

There must be some look on my face that indicates that something’s going on because Trixie talks to me. Voluntarily. Without me asking her something first. “So Simon and Baz are still hooking up?” She asks nonchalantly while putting her hair into pin curls.

I roll my eyes. “They weren’t hooking up; they were making out.”

She turns back to her vanity and shrugs. “Same difference. Keris was complaining about how loud they were being.”

“They’re usually yelling at each other; doesn’t seem like much of a surprise to me,” I tell her, sitting on my bed while being careful not to upset any of my notes.

Trixie turns around to face me, looking exasperated. “No, Penny. Sexy sounds. Moans, groans, breathy curse words!”

I put my head into my hands and massage my temples so that my brain won’t explode. “They had a tie on the door.”

“Exactly!” She exclaims, gesticulating wildly. “About damn time too! If they weren’t going to get together before graduation, I would have owed Dev Grimm ten bucks. Do you know what it’s like to lose a bet to Dev Grimm? He holds it above your head until you put him into his damn place!”

I look at her dumbly. “I have so many questions.”

She shrugs and waves her hands like she’s shooing a fly. “It doesn’t matter. What does matter is that Dev Grimm owes me ten dollars!”

“How is that I never noticed before?” I ask, somewhat to Trixie but mostly to the air. “I mean, now it makes sense. But there were bets on it?”

“You’re too close to Snow; with the way he talks about Baz—“

“I should have seen it coming!” I exclaim. “It all makes sense now!”

Trixie rolls her eyes and peels the sheet mask off her face. “Whatever. If you’re going to have a life crisis, save it for when I’m not in the room, m’kay?”

That somehow gets me to shut up and try to refocus on my biology homework, but at this point, I have no idea what’s going on. So, I do what any reasonable human being that has reasonably prepared for a final and was just hit with a lot of information about her best friend’s love life (and other people’s actual monetary investment in it) and just went to sleep. I’d deal with this in the morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, thank you so much for reading my strange little fic and be sure to leave kudos and comments! Those always make my day and warm my little heart! Hopefully, the next update won't be in 2020, lol.

**Author's Note:**

> Let's see if I'll remember to update this fic...
> 
> lol thanks for reading! leave me kudos and comments if you like it! it really helps me out :)


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